The Adult Contemporary chart (formerly known as Adult Contemporary Singles) lists the most popular songs weekly calculated by airplay and occasionally sales. Billboard magazine publishes this listing which includes Adult Contemporary and pop songs played on "lite-pop" and adult contemporary radio stations and available for sale in stores across the United States. Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry. ... Adult contemporary music, frequently abbreciated to just AC, is a type of radio format that plays mainstream and pop music, without hip-hop or rap since, as per the name, it is geared more towards adults than teens. ... For Popular music (music that is popular, rather than of a specific genre or style), see Popular music. ...

Like most other Billboard charts since 1998, airplay-only songs are allowed to enter the Adult Contemporary chart besides commercially available singles. The first song to reach the AC chart without being available as a retail single was Stevie Wonder's "Isn't She Lovely" in 1977. Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry. ... 1998 (MCMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean. ... Stevie Wonder is the stage name of Stevland Morris (born May 13, 1950 as Stevland Judkins[1]), an American singer, songwriter, producer, musician, and social activist. ...

Comparison with the Hot 100

As noted in the above history of the chart, although some people would assume that The Billboard Hot 100 and the Adult Contemporary (AC) chart are the same thing, they are not. The AC chart lists only pop/contemporary songs, while the Hot 100 includes songs from every genre. The Billboard Hot 100 is the main U.S. singles popularity chart used by Billboard magazine. ...

This situation has created some notable chart listing comparisons between the AC chart and the Hot 100 over the years. Pop songs generally tend to chart higher on the AC chart than the Hot 100 chart since on the Hot 100 they are competing with songs from other genres, such as country or hip-hop. One example of this was pop singer Amy Grant's 1991 single "That's What Love Is For" from her Heart In Motion album. The single topped the AC chart but reached the #7 position on the Hot 100. In fact, every one of Grant's singles have done better on the AC chart than the pop chart, and some have even charted solely on the AC chart. Amy Grant (born November 25, 1960) is an American Christian and pop singer-songwriter and occasional actress. ... 1991 (MCMXCI) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Heart in Motion was the twelfth album by Christian pop singer Amy Grant, released in 1991 (see 1991 in music). ...

There are exceptions to this, however. In 1988 the Beach Boys topped the Hot 100 with their pop single "Kokomo." "Kokomo" did not make it to the top spot on the AC chart, however, and it peaked at #5, even though "Kokomo" was a pop/contemporary song. 1988 (MCMLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Beach Boys are a pop music group formed in Hawthorne, California in 1961 who are widely considered one of the most influential bands in rock and pop music history. ...

Other notable singles by adult-appeal artists which reached #1 Pop while coming close but falling short of the top spot on the AC chart have included "Top Of The World" by The Carpenters, "You Needed Me" by Anne Murray, "You Don't Bring Me Flowers" by Barbra Streisand and Neil Diamond, "Crazy For You" by Madonna, and "Don't Wanna Lose You" by Gloria Estefan. In other instances, an artist with an established AC track record may release an uptempo song that is not as accepted at AC radio as at top 40 radio. Olivia Newton-John's biggest pop hit, "Physical," reached only #29 on the AC chart, and several of her other early 1980s pop hits, including "Heart Attack" and "Twist Of Fate," were shut out from the AC chart entirely, despite the fact that Newton-John had amassed nine #1 AC hits from 1974 to 1980. Richard and Karen Carpenter, the Carpenters The Carpenters were the biggest selling American artists of the 1970s. ... Anne Murray on the cover of her Christmas album What a Wonderful Christmas Anne Murray, CC , ONS , LL.D (born Morna Anne Murray June 20, 1945), is a Canadian singer born in Springhill, Nova Scotia, known for her rich alto voice and her taste in choosing songs that appeal to... Barbra Streisand (born April 24, 1942) is an iconic two-time Academy Award-winning American singer, theatre and film actress, composer, film producer and director. ... Essential Neil Diamond album cover. ... Madonna may be: People The Madonna, Mary, the mother of Jesus Madonna (entertainer) Madonna Wayne Gacy Diego Maradona Places House of the Black Madonna Madonna del Ghisallo, hill Madonna Inn, motel Madonna of the Trail, series of historical monuments Madonna Oriente Other Lady Madonna, song Madonna lily Black Madonna Madonna... Gloria Estefan (birth name Gloria María Milagrosa Fajardo, born September 1, 1957 in Havana, Cuba) is a five-time Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter-author, who began her career as lead vocalist for the Hispanic dance music band, Miami Sound Machine, in 1975, and crossed over to mainstream popular... Olivia Newton-John, 1988 Olivia Newton-John, OBE (born September 26, 1948, Cambridge) is a British-born Australian singer and actress. ...

Chart history

Billboard has published an adult-music chart since July 1961; it was originally called "Easy Listening" and was simply a listing of the top singles on the Billboard Hot 100 excluding those with rock and roll overtones. The #1 song on the very first Easy Listening chart was "The Boll Weevil Song" by Brook Benton; the first female artist to top the chart was Connie Francis with her version of the standard "Together." In the early years of the Easy Listening chart, the top song on the chart was generally always a Top 10 pop hit as well. The methodology for compiling the chart at that time allowed some teenage-appeal artists to have Top 10 Easy Listening hits with their softer or ballad releases (for example, Shelley Fabares with "Johnny Loves Me" and Lesley Gore with "I Don't Wanna Be A Loser"), regardless of whether Easy Listening and Middle-of-the-Road radio stations were actually playing those songs. Over the next several years, the chart went by a variety of names, including "Middle-Road Singles" and "Pop-Standard Singles." 1961 (MCMLXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (the link is to a full 1961 calendar). ... Image:BrookBenton1. ... Connie Francis MGM LP record, 1961 Connie Francis (December 12, 1938 in Newark, New Jersey) is an American singer. ... Shelley Fabares (born January 19, 1944) is an American actress and singer. ... Lesley Gore, French EP Lesley Gore (born May 2, 1946 in New York City as Lesley Sue Goldstein) is an American singer and songwriter, one of the best known performers of the girl group era. ...

In 1965, Billboard revamped the Easy Listening chart to better reflect what middle-of-the-road stations were actually playing, and the composition of the chart changed dramatically. As rock music continued to harden, there was much less crossover between the Hot 100 and Easy Listening chart than there had been in the early half of the 1960s. Several #1 Easy Listening hits of the late 1960s, such as Andy Russell's "It's Such A Pretty World Today" and John Gary's "Cold," failed to make the Hot 100 at all, simply "Bubbled Under," or made the chart in only minor positions. In 1967, only one single reached #1 on both the Easy Listening and Hot 100 charts - "Somethin' Stupid" by Frank Sinatra and Nancy Sinatra. Many of today's AC radio listeners may be surprised to learn that a great number of the 1960s songs played on modern-day AC and oldies radio, such as "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" and "Unchained Melody" by the Righteous Brothers, "Brown-Eyed Girl" by Van Morrison, "Respect" by Aretha Franklin, "Downtown" by Petula Clark, and "California Dreamin'" by The Mamas & The Papas, were considered too hard-edged by adult-oriented radio stations when they were originally released and never made the Easy Listening chart (or, in the case of "Unchained Melody," did not chart AC until they were re-released years later). The songs that were popular on Easy Listening radio during the 1960s have, for the most part, been relegated to Music of Your Life and other pop standards radio formats. 1965 (MCMLXV) was a common year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1965 calendar). ... John Gary (1922-1998) was a popular vocalist. ... Francis Albert Sinatra (December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer who is one of the most highly acclaimed male popular song vocalists of all time. ... Nancy Sandra Sinatra Jr (born June 8, 1940, in Jersey City, New Jersey) is an American singer and actress. ... The Righteous Brothers were the musical duo of Bill Medley and Bobby Hatfield. ... George Ivan Van Morrison (born August 31, 1945) is a singer and songwriter from Belfast, Northern Ireland. ... Aretha Franklin Aretha Louise Franklin (born March 25, 1942) is an American gospel, soul and R&B singer born in Memphis, Tennessee, but raised in Detroit, Michigan. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... From left to right: Denny Doherty, Mama Cass Elliot, and John and Michelle Phillips. ... Music of Your Life is a satellite network featuring the Adult Standards radio format. ... The term pop standards refers to an American songwriting, arranging, and singing style that is widely considered as the high point of Western vocal popular music. ...

This situation began to change toward the end of the 1960s and into the early and mid-1970s. By then, the audiences that middle-of-the-road stations were trying to attract were those who were more likely to identify with rock and roll than with the music of their parents' generation. They gravitated toward so-called "chicken rock" stations, which played Top 40 music without a hard rock edge and a good amount of oldie material. In addition, more contemporary-styled artists who recorded adult-appeal music, such as The Carpenters, Bread, The Fifth Dimension, Barry Manilow, Olivia Newton-John, Neil Diamond, Helen Reddy, Barbra Streisand and John Denver began to be played more often on Top 40 radio. Once again, there was a good amount of crossover between the Easy Listening and Hot 100 charts, and many more songs reached #1 on both charts. Richard and Karen Carpenter, the Carpenters The Carpenters were the biggest selling American artists of the 1970s. ... European sweetbread (strucla) Four loaves French bread has a somewhat rigid crust Breads and Bread Rolls at a bakery Continental Italian Bread Tin Vienna Bread Bread in a traditional oven, in Portugal, with hot coal in front Pre-sliced bread has become more common in many countries Bread rolls Pain... The Fifth Dimension is an American popular music vocal group, whose repertoire also includes R&B, Soul, and Jazz, best-known during the late 1960s and 1970s for popularizing hits of songwriters like Jimmy Webb, Laura Nyro, Burt Bacharach, Ashford & Simpson, and others, and helping to popularize flower power music... Barry Manilow Barry Manilow (born Barry Alan Pincus in Brooklyn, New York on June 17, 1946) is an American singer and songwriter best known for his hit recordings I Write The Songs, Mandy and Copacabana (At The Copa). Manilow dominated the charts for much of the 1970s with a string... Olivia Newton-John, 1988 Olivia Newton-John, OBE (born September 26, 1948, Cambridge) is a British-born Australian singer and actress. ... Essential Neil Diamond album cover. ... Helen Reddy (born October 25, 1941 in Melbourne, Australia) is an Australian pop singer and actress. ... Barbra Streisand (born April 24, 1942) is an iconic two-time Academy Award-winning American singer, theatre and film actress, composer, film producer and director. ... John Denver (December 31, 1943 – October 12, 1997), born Henry John Deutschendorf, Jr. ...

Billboard changed the name of the Easy Listening chart to the younger-sounding "Adult Contemporary" in 1979, by which time, like most other music formats, the format had transitoned from the AM dial to the FM dial. Since then, the amount of crossover between the AC chart and the Hot 100 has varied based on how much the passing pop music trends of the times appealed to adult listeners. Not many disco or new wave songs were particularly successful on the AC chart during the late 1970s and early 1980s, and much of the hip-hop and harder rock music now featured on CHR formats would be unacceptable on AC. Nevertheless, there is a long list of performers during that time who have amassed an impressive number of hits on both charts, such as Elton John, Madonna, Eric Clapton, Cher, Hall & Oates, Celine Dion, Mariah Carey, and Whitney Houston, as well as, more recently, Backstreet Boys, Faith Hill, and American Idol champion Kelly Clarkson, among many others. This page refers to the year 1979. ... Disco is a genre of music that originated in discothèques. ... New Wave is a term that has been used to describe many developments in music, but is most commonly associated with a movement in American, Australian, British, Canadian and European popular music, in the late 1970s and early 1980s born out of the punk rock movement. ... CHR is a Habbo Hotel AU fansite with a online streaming radio station. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Madonna may be: People The Madonna, Mary, the mother of Jesus Madonna (entertainer) Madonna Wayne Gacy Diego Maradona Places House of the Black Madonna Madonna del Ghisallo, hill Madonna Inn, motel Madonna of the Trail, series of historical monuments Madonna Oriente Other Lady Madonna, song Madonna lily Black Madonna Madonna... Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE (born March 30, 1945), nicknamed Slowhand, is a Grammy Award winning British guitarist, singer and composer, who became one of the most respected and influential musicians of the rock-era, garnering an unprecedented three inductions into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. ... Cherilyn Sarkisian (born May 20, 1946), better known by her stage name Cher, is an Academy Award-winning actress, singer, songwriter, director, author and and all-around entertainer. ... Hall & Oates is the popular music duo made up of Daryl Hall and John Oates. ... Céline Marie Claudette Dion, OC, OQ (born March 30, 1968) is a Canadian Grammy and Juno award-winning pop singer, and occasional songwriter[1] and actress. ... Mariah Carey (born March 27, 1970) is an American pop and R&B singer-songwriter, record producer, and occasional actress. ... Whitney Elizabeth Houston (born August 9, 1963) is an American R&B pop singer, songwriter, actress, film producer, and former model. ... Backstreet Boys, or BSB, is a Grammy-nominated boy band and pop group that enjoyed enormous success in the late 1990s and early 2000s, reporting sales of more than 87 million albums (38 million in the U.S.). To date, they are the highest-selling boy band in history. ... Audrey Faith Perry, later known as Faith Hill (born September 21, 1967 in Jackson, Mississippi), is a successful American country singer, known for her commercial success as well as her much-publicized marriage to country singer Tim McGraw. ... American Idol, formerly known as American Idol: The Search for a Superstar, is an American television show. ... Kelly Brianne Clarkson (born April 24, 1982) is an American pop and rock singer-songwriter, and occasional actress. ...

See also

• Adult Contemporary radio panel